Iran: Saudi Arabia Should Be Held Accountable for Mina Tragedy

Rasa - Iran’s Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Gholam Hossein Dehqani slammed the Saud regime for its failure to launch investigations into last year’s deadly crush of Hajj pilgrims in Mina, near the holy city of Mecca.

News ID: 423859

Date: 24 September 2016 - 18:07

RNA - Speaking Friday at a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) foreign ministers in New York on the sidelines of the 71st Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Dehqani pointed to the September 2015 Mina tragedy and said thousands of people were killed or injured as a result of the Saudis’ mismanagement of the incident.

He said the bodies of the victims were disrespected and left for hours under the hot sun.

The Iranian diplomat went on to say that the families of some of the victims had to wait for months to get information about the fate of their loved ones.

Dehqani said the Riyadh regime not only did not apologize to or compensate the bereaved families of the victims, but also refused to probe into the incident.

Earlier this month, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei blamed the Saudi-affiliated propaganda organizations for their attempts to spread the notion that the Mina tragedy signifies friction between Shiite and Sunni Muslims or between Arabs and non-Arabs.

Supporters of the Saudi rulers are trying to spread such an “outright lie” in a propaganda campaign, while “most of the 7,000 Mina martyrs, including a large number of Iranian martyrs, are Sunnis,” the Leader said.

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